Monthly Archives: May 2011

Gun Enthusiasts who live in California are about to lose some more of their freedom if the Legislature is successful with their latest bill to further control guns in the State. California is currently a ‘may issue’ state that will allow concealed carry of a weapon if the gun owner obtains a concealed carry weapon permit (CCW). Without a permit, it is against is the law to carry a concealed weapon in public. However, it is perfectly legal to openly carry a weapon in a holster, not concealed, on one’s person so long as the weapon is not loaded.

State legislators are now attempting to make it illegal to carry a weapon openly, which has always been legal in California. AB 144, which is unbelievably confusing to try and read, has been authored by Anthony Portantino (D. – La Cañada) is designed to strip us of our second amendment right to bear our arms. On May 4, 2011, the bill successfully passed in the Democrat controlled Assembly Appropriations Committee. And now, this morning, I hear that it also passed a vote in the assembly. This liberal controlled legislature on the ‘left’ coast in California is bent on imposing their liberal agenda on the good citizens of the great state in yet another attempt to ultimately make guns illegal.

Open carrying of firearms has always been legal in California, just like walking down the street. Carrying a firearm in California does not imply anything criminal. Firearms are carried for self defense because the police cannot and do not defend you. They will not be there when you are attacked, but will show up only after you have become a victim. Your safety is your own responsibility. There is a saying that, “When seconds count; the police are only minutes away”.

At a time when many states are passing less restrictive gun laws, and in some cases legalizing open carry of side arms, California is going the other way and introducing more gun control laws. Creating a law that criminals do not follow is not stopping gun violence, it is just making more innocent people susceptible to gun violence by those who don’t care about the law in the first place. Florida is currently in the process of legalizing open carry. Not California. Wyoming just became a “constitutional carry” state. Not California.

The Brady Bunch is also in on this abdication of personal responsibility and is lobbying to get it passed, or rather, ram it through. This bill seems to be traveling at break neck speed. Just 12 days after it was passed out of committee, it goes up for a vote in the Assembly and passes. The same legislature that can’t seem to find the time to put together a reasonable budget for the State, is able to find plenty of time to restrict our rights.

When the author of this bill, Anthony Portantino, learned of the South Bay Open Carry organization meeting at a restaurant in Pasadena (his home base) for dinner (all of whom were openly carrying) he was incensed and said, “I think most people on Main Street California want to go out with their families at dinner and to a movie and not have to worry about a group of folks who are armed at the restaurant or on the street next to them.” I for one don’t necessarily think it is wise to poke the dog that is attacking you, but the SBOC does this sort of public display to make a statement, and to try to educate people.

Portantino, as most gun control activists, can’t seem to realize that these guns actually make an environment safer. Perhaps if there had been a few gun toting people at the rally for Gabrielle Giffords, Jared Loughner would not have gone through with his murderous plan.

Gun Enthusiasts are encouraged to contact as many members of the State Senate, individually, as they can to oppose this legislation.

Last night it was announced that United States Special Forces conducted a raid on a compound in north western Pakistan that resulted in the death of Public Enemy No. 1, Osama Bin Laden. The man who has taken credit for the attacks on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and who created the terrorist group Al Qaeda, has been shot to death at his reported home.

The U.S. Navy Seals Special Operations team was given the green light to conduct the raid on the house in Abbotabad, Pakistan two days ago. The operation centered on a house that is reportedly six times larger than surrounding houses in the area, and had fifteen foot high walls surrounding it with barbed wire.

Another curious aspect was that in spite of its size, the house had no telephone or obvious internet connectivity at all. Abbotabad is about an hour northwest of Islamabad, the capitol of Pakistan. Another curious aspect of the house was that it was only about 1000 feet away from a major Pakistani military training facility and Osama Bin Laden was supposedly never known to be there. This will, no doubt, come under some close scrutiny in the days that follow.

As a gun enthusiast and an American, I am certainly proud of our military forces who executed this operation that yielded such a successful outcome. My thoughts also go to the man who actually took the shot that went through Bin Laden’s head and what he might be thinking. Most people are not necessarily proud of taking another human’s life, even if in war. But this was the man who has been hated by most of the world – not just our country, but most of the modern world including many in Muslim countries.

This special ops Navy Seal who actually fired his weapon ending the decade long search for the most hated man in the world has got to be feeling pretty proud. I’m sure his fellow members of his team are proud of him too knowing that any one of them would have proudly done the same thing. But this man can never let it be known, outside of a small circle of team members, that he is the one who shot Bin Laden.

Robert Ford, the man who shot Jesse James in 1882 was certainly proud of his deed and went around the country telling the story of how he shot the notorious outlaw until he was shot dead 10 years later.

Pat Garrett, the man who shot Billy the Kid in 1881, was proud of his deed too, enough so that he also made the circuit making money off of the telling of his story. He was also shot dead some twenty years later by an unknown assailant that many claim was in retaliation for the Billy the Kid shooting.

You can imagine that if the name ever got out as to the actual shooter of Osama Bin Laden, there would be plenty wacko Islamic extremists that like to take their revenge on him if they could find him. It is for that reason that this proud American must forever keep to himself and his small circle of friends his true identity. We Americans will be proud of him in our way, but never really know who this brave fighter really is.

Like this:

To answer that question right off, I will say that Clip is not a Magazine. There seems to be a lot of confusion on the matter. In a recent episode of CSI they said, “We found a print on the clip he left when he pushed the rounds in the clip”. Hollywood writers, like so many handgun owners, are using the term “clip” to refer to the gun’s magazine. While both a magazine and a clip hold ammunition for deployment into a gun, they are very different in appearance and application.

A magazine is basically a rectangular tube that fully encloses a quantity of cartridges that is inserted into the weapon to supply the ammunition for firing. They are designed for use in semi automatic weapons and fitinto the grip of a semi automatic pistol. Magazines vary in width and length, load cartridges in either single or double column, and while the latter hold more cartridges, they can also make the grip thicker. Some magazines are made entirely of metal, while others are a composite of metal and polymer. Nearly all magazines are spring loaded to force the next round into the action.

However, clips are usually made of thin metal that snaps into the groove of the case of the cartridge and they are primarily designed for a revolver. A clip will hold the cartridges as a unit that is dropped over the ejector as the cartridges slip into the cylinder holes. They do function as a magazine though in that they enable fast reloads. But clips are more easily damaged and are easier to lose than magazines.

So when it comes to clips and magazines, Hollywood may not know the difference, but now you do and can call them on it in the same way I know you now count the number of rounds they shoot. Just remember that clips are for revolvers, and magazines are for semi-automatic pistols (rifles too).